Research In Motion Chairman and co-CEO Jim Balsillie will step down as chairman of the Canadian maker of the popular BlackBerry device. The resignation comes in the wake of reports that the company misstated $250 million in stock options. Balsillie will stay on as co-CEO of RIM. According to a statement released by the company today, RIM will restate its 2006 earnings by $250 million. The error came to light following an accounting review.

Update from practice Monday: Tomas Holmstrom will be out for the next couple of games because of an undisclosed upper-body injury. It apparently happened during the third period of Friday’s game against Chicago but Holmstrom was able to play through it Sunday.

When Tommy Salo’s club Frölunda Indians surprisingly missed the playoffs Salo announced that it was the end of his goalie career. A career that gave gold in both in the Olympics and World Championships, he also played in 526 NHL games. The highlight of his career was perhaps when he saved Paul Kariya’s penalty shot in the Olympics 1994, a save that gave Sweden the gold medals. But despite his succesful career he will probably be most remembered for the dreadful and unfortunate mistake he made in the 2002 Olympics when Belarus eliminated Sweden in the quarter finals.

NEW YORK (Mar. 5, 2007) – Atlanta Thrashers goaltender Kari Lehtonen, Florida Panthers center Olli Jokinen and Colorado Avalanche goaltender Peter Budaj have been named the NHL’s ‘Three Stars’ for the week ending Mar. 4.
Each Monday, the NHL will recognize three players who delivered the League’s top performances over the past week.

FIRST STAR – KARI LEHTONEN, G, ATLANTA THRASHERS

Lehtonen posted a 3-0-0 record, 1.67 goals-against average and .940 save percentage as the Thrashers (34-23-10, 78 points) moved into a tie for first place in the Southeast Division with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lehtonen made 22 saves as the Thrashers recorded a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins, Feb. 26. He made 21 saves in a 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators, March 2 and finished the week by stopping 35 of 36 shots in a 3-1 decision over the Carolina Hurricanes, March 4. The 23-year-old Helsinki, Finland native improved his season record to 28-19-8 with a 2.84 goals-against average, .909 save percentage and four shutouts.

Recently, the NHL put together an “all-star” team of television experts comprised of John Shannon, the NHL’s vice president of broadcasting, Jim Wilkes, an ex-Molstar TV executive and Al Mountford, famous in the broadcasting industry for his hockey camerawork and the man who shot the 1980 Lake Placid “Miracle On Ice.” The three men have compiled a DVD and have met with every team in the league in an effort to help the regional broadcasters produce a better televised hockey game.
“Every team has a copy of the DVD and we (finished reviewing it) with all 30 teams,” Shannon said. “And right now we’re in the process of writing a case-book to help the broadcasters.”

During his 11 years with the NHL Players’ Association, Ken Kim can’t recall a time when the union visited all 30 NHL teams to meet with club executives. But that has begun to change over the last three months.
Kim, the union’s senior director of business, and Devin Smith, its director of club marketing, have traveled to 22 of the 30 NHL clubs to discuss ways teams can get players more involved local promotions and marketing programs. They’ll meet with the final eight teams over the next few weeks.
“Just having these meetings is coming a long way for us,” Kim said.
The meetings are unprecedented in the sports industry, where relationships between unions and leagues are often contentious. To date, none of the other major sports unions have traveled to each team during the course of a year to discuss marketing players.

A new hockey life for Craig Rivet begins, with this story: “We finished practice Saturday in Anaheim, we’re in the dressing room and (teammate) Billy Guerin yells over to me, ‘Are you ready for the media?’ Rivet said Sunday from a hotel lobby in Dallas, a few hours before his San Jose Sharks would blank the Stars 4-0.
“I said, ‘Yeah, let ‘em in,’ and Billy said, ‘He already is in.’ I started laughing - there was one soft-spoken reporter, and he wasn’t looking for any blood.”

NEW YORK (March 5, 2007) – NHL.com experienced record traffic for its coverage of the 2007 NHL Trade Deadline on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007.
While Trade Deadline Day historically is one of the busiest days of the year for NHL.com, Tuesday’s Trade Deadline Day—which included a live stream of NHL Network coverage for the first time ever to fans outside Canada—surpassed years past with 1,557,715 visits and more than 13.5 million page views. The figure represents a 70% increase in visits compared to an average day in the month of February and a 31% increase in the number of visits NHL.com experienced last year on Trade Deadline Day (Mar. 9, 2006).
All audience figures courtesy of Nielsen//NetRatings SiteCensus.

The Spartan swords of Warner’s “300” are mixing it up with the slashing sticks of the National Hockey League.
Marking the first time the NHL has promoted a Hollywood pic, the league has cut a 30-second TV spot mixing game play footage with scenes from Warner Bros.’ violent ancient battle actioner “300.”
Spot, produced by NHL Prods., will air during NHL games on NBC, Versus, TSN and local affiliates. It also will play on the league’s Web site and in-arena games in select markets.

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